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of all the traditional aesthetic the claim of Rasa".39
categories while emphasising
The argument for the
pre-eminent role of Dhvani in poetry assumes the realization of the fact that there is a unique aesthetic formation of poetical or artistic expression called Suggestion, which is totally different from the two well known process known as direct and indirect expression. This is the high water mark of the Dhvani theory which is summed up in the words of Anandavardhana: "Yatrarthaḥ śabdo va......" (Dhv. Al. 1.13) and "Tatparāveva sabdarthau..." (Dhv. Al. 1.13 ff).
Once we accept the position that the suggested meaning is the poetic meaning, it becomes clear that in all instances of Dhvani or Suggestion, the Vyangyartha is always more important and beautiful than the Vacyartha. This in its turn implies that, even in the case of Vastudhvani, where a bare idea is suggested, the beauty of the Vacyārtha is outshone by the beauty of the Vyangyartha. For, it is the central aim of poetry to delight the reader by the all-surpassing beauty of the suggested sense. This sense is mentioned to be of three types by Hemachandra: Vastu or Idea, Alamkara or suggestive figurative shades and Rasādi or sentiments. This threefold sense or Dhvani is the soul of poetry.
The first type of Vyangya or Dhvani called Vastudhvani, we are told, entirely different from the expressed sense and the others, suggests a bare idea or a matter-of-fact subject. In the words of war, it differs from the explicit meaning, and this is the chief characteristic, not only of the Vastudhvani but also of the remaining two types of Dhvani viz., the Alaṁkāra type and the Rasadi type. Thus, Vastudhvani completely differs from the explicit or expressed sense. Hemachandra employes the term Adi to hint the other senses such as Gauna and Lakṣya as well. In order to illustrate how a Vastudhvani or suggestion of the idea takes place, he points out that sometimes the expressed sense is of the nature of a
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